Our area has a lot of ties to Florida, which is a popular vacation and retirement destination for Wisconsinites. Many locals are worried about family and friends, as well as homes and properties, as Hurricane Ian makes landfall.
Beth Zimmerman’s parents are 89 years old. They decided to stay and hunker down in their home in Bonita Springs, which is between Naples and Fort Myers.
“I worry,” said Beth. “But they are set on their plan. ”
TMJ4 was at Zimmerman’s Brookfield home when she was able to reach her parents via Facetime. They had just lost power.
“We’re okay,” said George, Beth's dad. “We charged everything fully. They say we haven’t gotten the storm surge yet. That’s when the winds are going to come off the Gulf and push water inland.”
Beth booked a flight to be with them later this week. Until then, she prays and checks in on them as much as possible.
“I’ll share updates with the family so that you’re not using your cell phone battery power,” Beth told her dad. “I love you.”
TMJ4 also talked to Lisa Vagner, who moved from Milwaukee to Florida about 30 years ago. She lives in Lehigh Acres near Fort Myers.
“I’ve experienced quite a few hurricanes in my time in Florida,” she said. “But this one still feels different. It’s nerve-wracking. My power is probably going to go out at any moment. We’re seeing a lot of strong wind and rain.”
Vagner’s friends, who live closer to the coast and evacuated, have already gotten bad news.
“Those areas are about three to four feet underwater,” she said. “That’s going to take a lot to recover from.”
Vagner says getting messages from friends and family back home has really helped.
“It's me and my cats, so it helps tremendously,” she said. “When you have those people that you can reach out to in these dire situations, it calms you a little bit.”
One of the people she’s been in constant communication with is her friend, Valerie Wilson-Reed, who lives in Tampa, but happens to be back in Milwaukee visiting family this week.
Valerie’s husband, elderly mother, and other extended family had to evacuate.
“They only had a couple hours to get out,” said Wilson-Reed. “I’m praying constantly. I’m near my phone at all times, and I fly back Friday.”
Finding a hotel in a safe zone, along with bottled water and supplies, was not easy.
“As people started learning the path of the storm, hotels booked up in minutes, and grocery stores sold out of everything in a matter of hours,” said Wilson-Reed.
The latest update she got is an eerie photo of the beach near where she lives with no water for miles where the ocean usually is. It recedes before the surge.
“It’s very scary because you don’t know when that water is going to come surging back,” she said.
